Learning the ropes
November 15th 2006 19:06
Knowing the ropes
It is known without question that the largest contribution to the colourful use of the English language came from the sea. Seafaring was one of the largest, most daring, and most profitable and dangerous enterprises ever taken on by man. As an enterprise it also meant that in travelling from country to country and port-to-port sailors often took new ideas and language with them. It was in a way the “web surfing” of its day.
Probably the two oldest and most common jokes told to new chums on a sailing vessel is that the boom is named after the noise it makes when it hits you on the head.
The clew will always be remembered because you don’t have a clue?
An Estonian sea captain and ship owner out of the Baltic port of Tallinn had a lot of trouble with his rag tag crew of drunks and derelicts he picked up in each new port. Many were new to the sea and had to be taught as they went along. Most had little English and unlikely to speak a language as difficult as Estonian to learn. In teaching the men the ropes, the captain came up with a novel idea. The one language all the men spoke was the language of gambling cards. So at the start of the cruise he would pin a card on each major rope and that was how each rope was called after that.
I have heard from an authority as famous as a local Lake Macquarie poet that the word heads originated from the fact that when in port the ships cats were left to guard the shore lines coming aboard the ship to try and keep off the rats. The cats soon got bored with their work and who can really train a cat? So some wags came up with an idea to trick the rats. They cut out cat’s heads silhouettes and placed them on the bulwark where the cats should stand guard. It was also the same place that the crew went to their ablutions when at sea. So if a man said he was “going to the heads” it was a recognisable part of the ship. (Cont. tomorrow)
It is known without question that the largest contribution to the colourful use of the English language came from the sea. Seafaring was one of the largest, most daring, and most profitable and dangerous enterprises ever taken on by man. As an enterprise it also meant that in travelling from country to country and port-to-port sailors often took new ideas and language with them. It was in a way the “web surfing” of its day.
Probably the two oldest and most common jokes told to new chums on a sailing vessel is that the boom is named after the noise it makes when it hits you on the head.
An Estonian sea captain and ship owner out of the Baltic port of Tallinn had a lot of trouble with his rag tag crew of drunks and derelicts he picked up in each new port. Many were new to the sea and had to be taught as they went along. Most had little English and unlikely to speak a language as difficult as Estonian to learn. In teaching the men the ropes, the captain came up with a novel idea. The one language all the men spoke was the language of gambling cards. So at the start of the cruise he would pin a card on each major rope and that was how each rope was called after that.
I have heard from an authority as famous as a local Lake Macquarie poet that the word heads originated from the fact that when in port the ships cats were left to guard the shore lines coming aboard the ship to try and keep off the rats. The cats soon got bored with their work and who can really train a cat? So some wags came up with an idea to trick the rats. They cut out cat’s heads silhouettes and placed them on the bulwark where the cats should stand guard. It was also the same place that the crew went to their ablutions when at sea. So if a man said he was “going to the heads” it was a recognisable part of the ship. (Cont. tomorrow)
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Comment by katyzzz
Photography Tips
MS Paint Art
I like it.
katyzzz
Comment by TomN
Boat Heaven
Cheers
Tom